Had he not chattered so much about wanting a karaoke machine, his parents would not have bought him one for Christmas. Belt and wife Haylee would not have spent so many evenings singing karaoke with their friends in Texas. Then, Belt would not have made the mistake of expressing his fondness for karaoke on Twitter.

Can you see Belt's problem now? At some point, and soon, the Giants' 24-year-old first baseman will have to sing karaoke publicly, and not just in his hometown of 3,000 folks.

He already was asked to sing a cappella in front of hundreds at FanFest, where the Giants slipped by failing to provide a karaoke machine. Belt refused.

And if teammates cannot drag the strapping, 6-foot-5 first baseman to the watering hole?

"I think he ought to bring the karaoke machine in here and do it for the whole club, or after a long flight, like to Miami," Crawford said. "We'll get him on the speaker on the bus to the hotel."

Clearly, life changed for Belt after he helped the Giants win the 2012 World Series. Rather than ruminating all winter over his place on the team, he spent hours with his wife and friends warbling into a microphone. ("I was terrible at it, but it was all about being goofy and having fun.")

He also got to stand alongside Barry Zito on stage in Las Vegas at December's American Country Awards, presenting Carrie Underwood with her Female Artist of the Year award.

Through baseball, Belt had met a Fox television employee who was going to get the Belts into the awards show audience. But she had a brainstorm and phoned Belt to say it would be a kick to have ballplayers as presenters.

"So they asked me if I would call Posey and Cain, or see if I could get ahold of Wilson or somebody like that," Belt said. "They wanted me to do it with them, but you could really tell they wanted one of the big guns."

Belt likes country. After all, he is from Texas. But the two songs he will sing in public are a little more rock 'n' roll. As he put it, "I like singing 'Feel Like Makin' Love' by Bad Company and 'Hooked on a Feeling.' I don't know who sings that."

There is one song Belt hopes to forget. It's called the "When Will I Really Get to Be the Everyday First Baseman Blues."

After a stop-and-go start to his big-league career, Belt altered his plate approach in 2012 and finished strongly, hitting .293 with a .785 OPS in the second half. Now, manager Bruce Bochy makes it clear that Belt is his first baseman (and left fielder in some games when Buster Posey plays first base).

In the two prior offseasons, Belt played winter or fall ball, gaining at-bats and experience, but not after the 2012 World Series. He tripled home the first run in the final game at Detroit (his only hit of the Series), celebrated the championship and earned the right to stay home and, well, belt out some tunes on his karaoke machine.

Nevertheless, he promised he has not come to spring training complacent.

"I am enjoying coming in and being confident and comfortable being where I am for the first time in my big-league career," Belt said. "But this is definitely a job I could lose. I want to make sure I come out here and I'm competitive every game as if I'm trying to win a spot."